Porno For Pyros - September 25, 1993 - Nagoya Club Quattro, Osaka, Japan

Date: September 25, 1993
Location: Nagoya Club Quattro, Osaka, Japan
Recorded: No known recording
Status: Confirmed
Type: Concert
Lineup: Perry Farrell
Stephen Perkins
Martyn Lenoble
Peter DiStefano
Artwork:
 

Show Information:

Show confirmed by the following article:

The Daily Yomiuri
September 25, 1993, Saturday
Farrell fails to ignite Porno for Pyros
BYLINE: W. Blake Gray; Special to The Daily Yomiuri
SECTION: Pg. 15

Usually Perry Farrell is a cool dude who makes all the right alternative moves to straddle the line between artist and pop star. So perhaps a yen-generating tour of Japan is now the cool thing to do.

But Porno for Pyros, Farrell's band for the past year after the breakup of Los Angeles-based alternative heroes Jane's Addiction, would be more entertaining if they weren't so obviously only killing time on stage.

Their concert Thursday at Club Citta in Kawasaki lasted exactly one hour--a typical Japan contractual obligation show. With no warmup band, this tour is no bargain.

Porno for Pyros does have its moments. The quirky, catchy song "Pets" is enjoyable on record or live, and the twisted L.A. logic of "Black Girlfriend" (key lyric--"Ever since the riot, all I've really wanted was a black girlfriend") is particularly strange with a Japanese dancer performing suggestively behind Farrell.

Like Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros seems to revel in creating anti-rhythms with an almost annoying treble-dominated sound.

Farrell's voice, which is remarkably devoid of any low frequency sounds, is the perfect lead instrument for this calculated cacophony.

Rarely do bassist Martyn LeNoble and drummer Stephen Perkins, a Jane's Addiction holdover, seem to be working together.

Guitarist Peter DiStefano plays his foot pedals better than his axe. Sometimes the mix is interesting.

On the whole, though, this four-man band lacks both the consistency and the musical ability of Jane's Addiction, and Farrell is not creative enough to carry it by himself.

Porno for Pyros also limits itself by not playing any Jane's Addiction songs.

It's admirable for the man who started the Lollapalooza alternative tour to want to forge an entirely new musical direction, but he hasn't really.

He's just playing the same sort of stuff with an inferior band that is neither pornographic nor pyroclastic enough to be unique.

Porno for Pyros will appear tonight at Nagoya Club Quattro, Sunday at Shinsaibashi Club Quattro in Osaka and Sept. 27-28 at On Air in Shibuya, Tokyo. For information, call H.I.P. at (03) 3475-9999.